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Campbell and Bates secure 2016 titles

Matt Campbell and Tony Bates have secured the outright and TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge titles with one race remaining for the Porsche Carrera Cup Australia presented by Emsteq season finale in Surfers Paradise, while McElrea Racing sealed its place as the top team in the competition.

After claiming his seventh straight TAG Heuer Pole Position on Friday, Campbell led from the green light in race one, charging to a 2.6 second victory over Michael Almond, his best race result since winning race three at the Clipsal 500, and Alex Davison in third.

The result handed Campbell an unassailable lead in the standings, securing his first national championship win and McElrea Racing’s maiden driver’s title. This didn’t slow the 21-year-old in race two, crossing the finish line over three seconds ahead of Davison and Almond.

“It’s great to get my first championship win and also to get the first for McElrea Racing. We’ve worked so hard for this over the past two years so to finally win the Carrera Cup championship is unbelievable. I’m just speechless,” said Campbell.

“It was great to win the title after the first race, taking the pressure off for the second. I love this circuit and had a great time out there in race two without having to think about the championship. I can’t wait for tomorrow’s final race of the season.

“There are a lot of people behind the scenes who have worked very hard to make this all possible, so I can’t thank them enough and it’s awesome to win this championship for them.”

While Davison remains second in the standings, David Wall has jumped to third ahead of Nick McBride. McBride’s practice accident, which caused him to miss qualifying, forced him to start from the rear of the race one grid and managed to charge through to 12th. McBride then finished 16th in race two following a drive through penalty sustained for contact with Dylan O’Keeffe. For Wall, however, two sixth place results enabled him to jump into the top three in points.

Stephen Grove was the dominant force in the TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge on Friday, taking two race wins from James Bergmuller in each.

“It was important to finish the season strong. Coming into this weekend I knew the championship win wasn’t going to happen this year with the four DNFs, so it’s great to start the final round of the year with two strong race results,” said Grove.

While Bates wasn’t a class pace-setter in the opening two races, the Victorian did enough – a third and fourth in class – to secure the TAG Heuer Carrera Challenge title with one race remaining.

“This is fantastic. I feel very relieved; I’ve been knocking on the door of the Challenge championship for the past two years and it hasn’t happened for one reason or another, so to finally win it is sensational,” said Bates.

“The competition has been tough all year – Shane Smollen, Stephen Grove and James Bergmuller, who has been very competitive this year. The competition has been close which has increased the competitiveness of the class, which makes it so rewarding to take the win this year.”

Bergmuller remains second in the Challenge class standings, while Grove jumped to third due to the absence of Smollen, whose Gold Coast campaign ended after an accident in opening practice.

McElrea Racing, along with its drivers James Abela, Campbell, Duvashen Padayachee and Shane Smollen, had another reason to celebrate on Saturday; not only did the team win its first driver’s title, it also secured the 2016 Teams Championship – the award recognising the best point scoring driver from each team from each race.

“We’re thrilled for Matt and his achievements, but also what James, Duvashen and Shane did for us during the year. We’re very happy,” said team boss, Andy McElrea.

“It’s great for the guys in the team to be acknowledged and this award is the best way to do it. I’m really pleased with the season and proud of the all in the team for their efforts.”

Porsche Carrera Cup Australia presented by Emsteq will hold its final race of the season on the Surfers Paradise street circuit on Sunday.